The High Crusade
The High Crusade
| 02 June 1994 (USA)
The High Crusade Trailers

Medieval crusaders from the 13th century are captured by aliens. However, this can not stop them to conquer the Holy Land.

Reviews
Harockerce What a beautiful movie!
Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
skookum1 I have to strongly disagree with the previous review, and perhaps it's because I haven't read the Poul Anderson book; in fact I never knew there was one. This is one of the funniest Brit-com pieces I've seen, and it only gets funny once you get past the thick brogues of the dwarf aliens, and of course you have to already have a taste for Python-esquire humour and understand some of the references in the rapidly-delivered alien speech. The madcap slapstick and pathetic buffoonery of the story's "hero" and the villainy of his alter-ego cracks me up every time. I recommend this film quite often and have never considered anything but magnificently twisted. Sorry it's not faithful to Anderson's book; it's not the first time that Hollywood's savaged a novel.
imdb-20-eharper Rented it because of the book. Enjoyed it for it's own Pythonesque humor.It's not a serious movie and it doesn't take itself seriously, nor are the actors all that good. Nonetheless, it takes a very light-hearted approach that is fun if you are in the right mood. My 15-yr old son and I laughed and laughed, my wife left the room.Did you enjoy Time Bandits (especially the scene with Robin Hood?) How about Monty Python's Holy Grail (especially the scene with the rabbit?) If yes, give it a try; if not, you've been warned. As my son says, "It's so random!!" However, from him, this is something close to praise. For what it is, the production values are pretty good and the jokes (especially in the subtitles) are frequent. Others criticize it for not being what they wished it were. Yes, there could be a much different movie made that takes Pohl Anderson's book more seriously. It could be the basis of a good series of the SciFi Channel. But if you can take THIS movie as it is and put aside thoughts of the OTHER movie you might wish it were, you can have some fun.That's how it looks from here.
Ary_Monteiro Thankfully I've not read the book because this incredibly silly medieval comedy entertained me from start to finish. Some friends made a double-feature with this and A Knight's Tale and I Knew next to nothing about it, which added to my enjoyment because the alien focus came somewhat unexpected. Mild Spoilers: It tells the tale of a knight and his soldiers that kidnap a spaceship and try to use it against the Saracens in the Crusades, but the ship ends up heading to an alien planet and they must fight using their medieval mentality. The movie looks nice for a mid-nineties European flick, and even some cheesy special fx add to the fun so, no problems here.The humor is what will certainly put some people off, but if you dig flicks like Monty Python's Holy Grail, Brancaleone, A Knight's Tale or even Kung-Pow, you may find something to like here.The annoying french bard reminded me of Asterix.
Ed Uthman Poul Anderson had done all the screenwriters' work for them. With a solid historical backbone, subtle wit, and an engaging story, his novel was enough to relegate the writing of the script to a fill-in-the-blank exercise. Instead, the movie emerges as a pale ripoff of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, yet with even more historical inaccuracies (HIGH CRUSADE has Jerusalem falling to Saracens in 1345, not 1187, and even has a trio of Saracens attacking a keep in England!)The dialogue does flirt with intelligence, as when John Rhys-Davies's character, Brother Parvus, insistently tries to "educate" spacefaring aliens about the Holy Trinity and geocentric cosmology, but ultimately it's just a tease. Things quickly descend into weak farce, and some devices, such as the aliens' construction of an evil human clone, are pure throwaway filler.I sure hope Poul Anderson never saw this film. My fear is that he would never sell film rights for one of his excellent books again, which would be a shame, since in the right hands some fine movies could be produced.